Common Mistakes in Basic Differentiation Topics

Abstract: It is expected that students in Science and Technology programs to at least pass a basic Calculus
course. However, students are getting lower marks and performed poorly in this subject which will greatly affect
students study plans. This reason being those students are unable to show mathematically sound arguments or
work solution. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the errors and misconception in an undergraduate course
in Calculus 1. The study will be based on a group of students in computer science and statistics program in
Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Raub. Data is gathered from 60 test scripts in differentiation topics. Two
questions on basic differentiation topics which focus on product rules and quotient rules were analysed. It is
hoped that this result will bring some light or idea in pertaining to the common mistakes done by students in
differentiation topics.
Keywords: Errors, Misconceptions, Calculus